Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Thank you to everyone who dreamed, fought and sacrificed for our freedom.

Happy anniversary United States of America!

New noise

iPad + 5000 songs + TDK monster digital boom box =
awesome music rattling the rafters. Can you hear me now?

Best BBQ in Boone County

Pat with left overs in front of Lonnie Ray's All-American
Grill and Cafe in the metropolis of Harrisburg, which is
my pick for the best durn BBQ in all of Boone County.
When you go there, make sure you bring a truck driver
size appetite.

More a vegetarian than not, Pat attempted to
tackle a half order of baby back ribs. Pat
fought the ribs, but the ribs won.

Dead Red

I euthanized a big, old, ailing red cedar tree last weekend.
Our chickens liked to hide under this tree from my dog
Mr. Bojangles. Now, our ecosystem is out of balance.

Redneck Woodstock

Music week: Tab Benoit regaled the crowd with his guitar at the Blue Note last Thursday night, followed by Willie Nelson's Country Throwdown at The Midway Expo (a.k.a. Redneck Woodstock) on Friday night. We got there early, so we could get rained on, and then retreated to my pickup to listen to my favorite classic rock radio station for an hour and a half, while hail and 60 mph winds passed through. Apparently only the sane and sober sought shelter. The crowds inebriation level ratcheted up a few notches in our absence. But it was for Willie. He was awesome. Willie was joined by his son Lucas Nelson on stage. Lucas is a pretty good blues guitarist. I expect we will see more of Lucas.

Pat at our first stake out, where we listened to

Branley Gilbert and Lee Brice. New to us.

They play country music,

The clouds and the crowds began to gather. Both grew
thick and thunderous.

Sushi

Sushi for supper! We have had so much rain

that central MO has struggled with flooding

all spring. Apparently this gar ended up high 

and dry after the water receded below the 

deck of the Katy Trail bridge.

Claire's Mango Tree

While at Earth University in Costa
Rica, we had a mango tree planted in
their Hope Forest to commemorate
Claire's two semesters there. We look
forward to returning there in a few years
to pick and eat its fruit.

STL Tornado

Okay, maybe the St. Louis airport tornado on Friday night does not make your highlight reel. Maybe better, more fun things happened in your life. Well, good for you, but this is my blog. It's all about me ;-) What's new. What's old, what's fun, what's borrowed, what's blue (see music postings). 

I am a frequent flyer. It comes with the job. So I visit STL (Lambert International Airport) about 50 times a year. That means in the last nine years, I spent a couple weeks of my life in STL, waiting to board planes, waiting for luggage, bumming about flight delays and cancellations, rebooking flights, eating crappy food, answering email, talking business on my cell phone, filing lost luggage forms, wishing I was paddling a canoe in Quetico Provincial Park, and reading USA Today, Mens Journal and Harvard Business Review. So if you mess with STL, you are messing with me. Mother Nature messed with STL. Watch this dramatic video. Or this CNN video.  

And where was I? Why wasn't I there to protect STL, standing on the tarmac with orange batons waving at the tornado to veer north? I should have been there. Sorry STL. I was on a plane in Detroit bound for STL. On queue and second for take-off, our plane was sent back to the gate, the flight was eventually cancelled, and I was rebooked for the 8:54 am flight Saturday morning. Before I left the DTW airport, that flight was cancelled, I was rebooked for a noon flight, that flight was cancelled, and I was rebooked for the 3 pm flight on Saturday afternoon. Saturday morning, the 3 pm flight was cancelled, I was rebooked for a 6 pm flight, then a 9:30 pm flight before being rebooked for Sunday morning. I am grateful for how efficiently Delta handled my rebookings. Had I known it was going to take 40 hours to get home from Detroit, I would have rented a car, but instead I spent the lion's share of Easter weekend in a run-down Clarion hotel next to DTW, answering email, eating crappy food, reading On-Demand Brand, checking flight updates with the Delta app on my phone, not eating chocolate bunnies and wondering if my new pickup was wounded or perhaps killed by the tornado.

Thankfully, no one was seriously injured. Unfortunately, hundreds of windows were blown out of the airport, concourse C is now an open air natatorium, lots of signs were blown over, zillions of trees snapped off, hundreds of houses and businesses damaged, some flattened, and thousands of vehicles tossed, piled-up or had windows blown out. But not my pickup. The brunt of the storm missed it by just a couple parking lot rows, which brings credence to three of the top ten business planning decisions: location, location, location. Next time, Mother Nature, locate, locate, locate your twister away, away, away from people, people, people, please, please, please. Human life is fragile. With every huff and puff, you toss about legions of lives. I have had enough! So I am calling you out Mother Nature. My brigade of Dyson vacuum cleaners and I are going to give you some serious cyclonic action payback.

Main concourse windows boarded up.

No one obeyed the traffic signals on Sunday.

Chaco time

It's Chaco time, when the weather gets hot...
the most glorious time of the year.

Zarda's

If you share my goal to dine at every famous, infamous,
quasi-famous and dubious barbeque shack, make sure
Zarda's is on your list. It's over there by KC someplace.

The pulled pork is awesome. I had a side of
cheesy corn. A first for me... and a last. Corn
compliments with most foods. Cheese
enhances almost anything, even bacon.
Cheesy corn, however, tastes like baby food,
and looks like baby ralph.

Noodle Lady Strikes Again

Three creeks hike

Happy Vernal Equinox everyone. It was sunny and 76
degrees here. Our equinox was vernalizing. How about
yours? We went for a long hike at Three Creeks
 Conservation Area today. Judging by Pat's smile, she
might have overdosed on vitamin D from the sunlight.

Since she has not yet gotten her spring buzz cut, Little
Roser over heated quickly. Fortunately, there were plenty
of mud puddles for cooling down.

There's the difference between our two dogs. Big Bo takes
the high and dry route, and Little Roser splishes and
splashes.

That's me, demonstrating my world champion rock
skipping form. I never met a rock that didn't need skipping.

Flowers and art thing

Pat coerced me into going to a flower and art event thing at the Mizzou art gallery this weekend. I negotiated a big country breakfast at D & D Cafe. After the bribe, I was glad to go. At least that's what I told Pat. Really, I blame Claire for this. It is just the type of thing that Pat and Claire would do together when Claire is in town. Here are some pictures of the flower arrangements inspired by art.

There were plenty more, but that's enough. You get the idea. Whoop de doo...  Next time, I am holding out for a big steak and a German sweet chocolate cake. 

Spring sprang sprung

Flick list

Here is the complete, sequential list of the movies Pat and I watched at the 2011 True/False Film Fest: Trees/Forest. I want to get this off my desk now, and go to work. In the next couple days, I might come back and share my thoughts about each film, or not. If you want to read a description of each film, please go here.

• Blood in the Mobile
• Benda Bilili!
• Zielinski
• North From Calabria
• Buck
• Foreign Parts
• Secret Screening White
• El Bulli: Cooking in Progress
• Page One: Inside the New York Times
• Hula & Natan
• You Are All Captains
• Birmingham Barber (short film)
• The Burger and the King
• Life in a Day

The Toughcats

If you want to see a band pour it all into each note, I
recommend you catch The Toughcats. This is the third year
in a row we saw them perform at the True/False Film Fest,
and we look forward to seeing them perform next year. If you
didn't know it before, about two bars into their first song, you
will discover music is in your soul, not the instruments.

Buck

Q & A after the screening of Buck at the
True/False Film Fest. I was pleasantly
surprised to find the real Buck Brannaman
wiser than the character created after him
in the book and movie The Horse Whisperer.
Teaching through respect, partnership and
trust is much more than a humane method
for training horses. It's a top ten life lesson.
Catch the film in a theater near you on
June 24.

Jubilee

Last night, we whooped it up at the 2011
True/False Film Fest Jubilee with Rotary
Youth Exchange student Anne. Then we
watched Benda Bilili! The movie is a great
testament to hope and perseverance. I'd
watch it again right now if it was playing.

Hickies

Wednesday, I ate lunch with Mike at Hickies
in New Boston. They boast the number 1
burger in the whole US of A. I could argue
with that claim, but why?  The burgers were
mighty tasty. And quite small. I ate three.
Next time, I will order four or six.

Thanks, Mike!

The Scioto Ribber

I ate dinner at The Scioto Ribber in Portsmouth, Ohio this
week. As you can see, I ordered Ribber fries, beans and
country ribs, based on the recommendation of my hotel
clerk. Everyone I talked to the next day said, "Man, you
shoulda had a steak. They have the best steaks." I saw the
steaks. Most of my canoes are smaller than those steaks. I
have slept on hotels mattresses thinner than those steaks.
The country ribs were each the size of a steak. I ate them
all, of course, and I still regret doing so. I cannot wait to
eat there again. I'll order a steak and the ribs.

Five 6-foot long smokers, and two log
splitters to to keep the wood coming. Now
that is my kinda restaurant.

Dang winter returned

Swing on. Swing on. Swing on.

Swing until spring comes true.

Swing with me, swing for the year

Swing for the laughter, swing for the tear

Swing with me, its just for today

Maybe tomorrow, 

                the good Lord will take snow away

Brrrr 1

Brrrr 2

Brrrrr 3

Notice a trend? Mother nature gave us the 

cold shoulder.

IBC 2011

We just returned from a fantastic trip to the 2011 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. We went. We saw. We listened. We ate. We ate and listened. Listened and ate, and listened some more. The music was better than ever. Congratulations to The Lionel Young Band for winning first place in the band competition, to The Mary Bridget Davies Group of Kansas City for second place--yeah! Kansas City, and to Rob Blaine for being the outstanding guitarist. Other highlights of the trip include a romantic dinner at Itta Bena, and an afternoon combing through the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

Pat at the judges table, looking bluesishly
officious.

Raphael Tanquilino of the Randy Oxford Band showing off
his Mexico City-style blues guitar rips.

Kate Moss of Blue Bella Records and
sometimes guitarist of Nick Moss and the
Flip Flops firing up her Strat at a jam session.

Nick Schnebelen of Trampled Under Foot at
the "after semifinals jam" at the New Daisy.

Pat in front of the soon to be new office of
the International Blues Foundation in South
Main in Memphis. Ask her about the Michael
P. Maness painting. Pretty Awesome!

The Rum Boogie Cafe, recipient of Pat's life-
time achievement award for best blues club.

There. Is that enough linked information for you?

Big blizzard

Not the biggest snow storm in the history of
COMO, but sometimes victory comes to
number 2, too. 18 inches of snow brought
a stark, quiet morning.

The usual, obligatory picture of our front
porch napping after the snow storm.

A chord and half of wood not too fired-up about winter.

Lucy and Suki got up early this morning to
build a straw patio, make a pitcher of pink
lemonade and finger sandwiches.

The table is set for a marshmallow picnic. 

3.5 hours of old guy grunts, freezing sweat
and 140,000 scoops later, our driveway is
open for sojourners and gift couriers.

Three of my canoes hibernate in the sun, dreaming of
summer and gliding across lakes as great blue herons
squawk and swoop off to the next bays to stand knee deep
in water, patiently waiting for brave fish.

MIghty Frosty MO River

Me, psyching up for swimming from
Rocheport to Jefferson City. All things
considered, it was really cold. This picture
was actually taken in color. That's how grey
it was that day.

Rockabilly night

Big Smith, Hipnecks and the Ben Miller Band at the Blue Note. Awesome night. If you weren't there, you missed it.